Jon Loyd passes for the Las Vegas Prospects 17s playing the Southern California All-Stars Red in the 2009 Adidas Super 64 tournament at Rancho High School in Las Vegas on Wednesday, July 22, 2009.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | 5:52 p.m.
Expanded coverage
Six years ago, Ron Montoya got a call from an adidas executive asking him to help start an AAU basketball tournament in Las Vegas.
“We put it together in a month,” Montoya said. The former Basic High coach and current Valley High principal is director of the adidas Super 64 Tournament. “We barely got 64 teams.”
Oh, how things have changed.
This year, there were 175 teams on the waiting list for the adidas Super 64 Tournament, which runs through Sunday in gyms throughout Southern Nevada.
Four tournaments — adidas Super 64 plus the VisionSports Main Event (formerly the Nike Main Event), the Reebok Summer Championships and the StarVision Sports Center Stage — are bringing more than 10,000 players and nearly 900 college coaches and assistants to town this week.
It’s considered the largest concentration of talent for college coaches to scout during the open evaluation period, which runs from July 8 to 31.
“The talent level is just amazing,” Montoya said. “We have great players, great teams and great coaches.”
Montoya’s favorite memories from past tournaments include watching current NBA players when they were young -- Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) and Ty Lawson (Denver Nuggets) leading the DC Blue Devils to the semifinals in 2005, and when James Harden (Oklahoma City) dominated Michael Beasley (Miami Heat) in 2006.
This year’s adidas tournament is headlined by defending champs Grassroots Canada. The team is led by current Findlay Prep standouts Tristan Thompson, a forward ranked No. 11 in the nation by recruiting Web site Rivals.com who is committed to Texas, and Cory Joseph, the No. 12 player in the nation who is considering Arizona, UNLV, Louisville and Ohio State.
One of the top seeds in the Reebok Summer Championships is Team Detroit, which features three highly rated prep players: forward Dominique Ferguson, guard Ray McCallum and guard Trey Zeigler.
“You know who’s good,” Montoya said. “But you never know who is going to develop into that high draft pick.”
Here is a breakdown of the tournaments by the numbers.
1,040
Teams playing in the four tournaments combined.
30
Girls’ teams in the two tournaments, VisionSports Main Event and StarVision Sports Center Stage, that have a girls’ bracket.
9
The youngest age group in any tournaments, in both Main Event and StarVision Sports Center Stage.
46
Different courts being used around Las Vegas to accommodate the events.
44
States represented.
30
Teams from California registered to play in the Reebok Summer Championships.
0
Teams from Nevada registered to play in the Reebok Summer Championships.
2,270
Flight miles logged by the Alaska Flight, who will play in the VisionSports Main Event, to arrive in Las Vegas.
1
Minute halftimes in the VisionSports Main Event between two 16-minute halves.
4
Number of guaranteed games for each team in the tournaments.
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or at [email protected].
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